RE: Need Console 101 badly

From: Larry Bolhuis

As to Joe's legitimate concern about TCP/IP it's both simpler and more
complicated than that.

First for LAN attach you MUST dedicate an Ethernet port to the console.
With V5R3M5 or newer of LIC you can use any 10/100 or GbE port (Previous
to that it had to be a 100Mb card, not a 10Mb only or a Gbe capable
card.) . This could be one of the two ports on the i515 planer board or
on a FC #5706 card or a FC #2809 or FC #4838 Ethernet card. No IOP is
required for the card. The port is taken over by SLIC so while you will
see it in i5/OS under WRKHDWRSC *STG you cannot use it there. So if you
continue that thought you will understand why TCP/IP on i5/OS does not
need to be operating for the Ethernet connection and it's 'TCP/IP Short
Stack' to be available to the console.

In other words when SLIC is running you will be able to PING the LAN
Console port and the console PC will attach to it.

Thanks for this, Larry. This is really helping me in my decision making
process. I really do think that the i515 is the right answer for my new
machine using the LAN connect operations console. With two onboard Ethernet
ports, I can use one for the console and one for my normal network
connection.

I'm not sure that I'll ever move the 270 to LAN console. Based on the
description above, it sounds to me like it would require another Ethernet
port, and I don't know what's involved in putting another Ethernet port into
an old 270.

Just for giggles, I'm including the WRKHDWRSC *CMN from my machine. If
anybody could tell me how to translate a Type 284D Combined function IOP to
an actual feature code, I'd appreciate it!

Resource Type Status Text
CMB01 284D Operational Combined function IOP
LIN01 2745 Operational Comm Adapter
CMN01 2745 Operational Comm Port
CMN02 2745 Operational Comm Port
LIN03 2771 Operational Comm Adapter
CMN04 2771 Operational Comm Port
CMN05 2771 Operational Comm Port
CMB02 2842 Operational Combined function IOP
LIN02 2838 Operational LAN Adapter
CMN03 2838 Operational Ethernet Port

Joe